Your “Full Retirement Age” is when you may collect 100-percent of your monthly benefit. For people born between 1943-1954, that age is 66.

If you elect to take benefits before your “full retirement age,” the amount will be reduced by as much as 25 percent.

If you wait to collect benefits after your “full retirement age,” you earn “delayed retirement credits.” This is a yearly increase of 8 percent. If you wait until age 70 to claim benefits, your monthly amount will be 32-percent higher.

The difference in the benefit amount between claiming benefits early at 62 and claiming later at 70 is 76 percent.

Benefits are adjusted yearly for Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs). There is no COLA for 2016.

If you work between ages 62-65, your benefits will be withheld $1 for every $2 in earnings above $15,720.

In the year you reach “full retirement age,” your benefits will be withheld $1 for every $3 in earnings above $41,880.

After you reach “full retirement age,” there is no limit on how much you can earn. Your benefits will not be withheld.